Critique of broken windows theory

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In 17 of the spots, police made more misdemeanor arrests, while other city authorities cleared trash, fixed streetlights, and enforced building codes.

In the other 17 spots, no changes in routine procedures were made. Today, however, five major U. In all of these cities, police stress aggressive enforcement of minor misdemeanor laws.

Despite its popularity in major cities, police policy based on the broken windows theory is not without its critics, who question both its effectiveness and fairness of application. In , University of Chicago Law School professor Bernard Harcourt published a study finding no evidence that broken windows policing actually reduces crime.

Though the NYPD had realized greatly reduced crime rates in the broken windows enforcement areas, the same areas had also been the areas worst affected by the crack-cocaine epidemic that caused citywide homicide rates to soar.

Harcourt concluded that for most cities, the costs of broken windows policing outweigh the benefits. Broken windows policing has also been criticized for its potential to encourage unequal, potentially discriminatory enforcement practices such as racial profiling , too often with disastrous results. When, according to the police report, Garner resisted arrest, an officer took him to the ground in a chock hold. Since then, and due to the deaths of other unarmed Black men accused of minor crimes predominantly by white police officers, more sociologists and criminologists have questioned the effects of broken windows theory policing.

Critics argue that it is racially discriminatory, as police statistically tend to view, and thus, target, non-whites as suspects in low-income, high-crime areas. According to Paul Larkin, Senior Legal Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, established historic evidence shows that persons of color are more likely than whites to be detained, questioned, searched, and arrested by police.

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Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. This essentially claims that if minor offenses like vandalism go unpunished than criminals will think the police do not care about the community and criminals will be more likely to commit serious crimes.

The question behind this theory and all theories really for that matter is whether or not it is effective in practice? Bratton required that police officers implement a zero tolerance policy that addressed order maintenance offenses.

This included police officers issuing citations for open container violations, vandalism, and taking vagrants off the streets. Arresting criminals for these minor infractions shows that police do care about the community.

Arrest rates for minor crimes increased between and Further, it was found that precincts with the greatest arrest rates for minor offenses had the largest decrease in homicide and robbery rates. For more information on how broken windows policing was considered effective check out this article here. However, there is some doubt about whether or not the broken windows theory is actually effective. While it is true that robbery and homicide rates were reduced from in New York City, there has not been a direct connection drawn between crime rates and broken windows policing.

There are other factors that could have caused the robbery and homicide rates to drop. For instance during , as a part of the problem oriented policing plan there was an increase in police officers in New York City. According to an article from the University of Michigan website it is stated that the crime rates in New York City could have decreased simply due to the factor that more police were hired during that time and not the style of policing that the police officers used.

This study can be viewed here.